Music producing techniques

[fidox]

Hi !

I need some fresh start on building better sound quality tracks.
Been some time after last production and while trying now some new approaches, my ears are lost.
There's a lot of Youtube and other articles to read, hear, watch and
I'd also like some experiences from you, professionals.
I don't have any special studio area, just my monitors in my room.

If I have mastering tool in Cubase, like Ozone, should I use just that one, or is it smart to combine with Scope or using just Scope ones?
While using just Cubase tools also give me option to Export Audio whole track, which I can't with combination with Scope.

Last track I produced, few days ago, while producing and listening in normal lower volume, sounds nice and fine.
Then I turned volume up, sounds like shit.

I know , learning and practice, but at some point my ears doesn't trust so much like before and that was just while I was trying to improve sound, now I'm stucked with , what's real and what not.
With my studio monitor headphones was the same. Listening lower volume, sounds nice, listening loud, sounds like a trash
I was layering and trying to polish sound, cutting away drum and bass for more space and so on ....
I did quite nice punch tracks already, but now i was focused more on mid area, which I think i'm still weak.

[fra77x2]

Reference -> study bits of professional audio and see how it works. Study the waveforms. Study sound at different spots in the room, understand static waves, cancellations, frequency masking, low end etc

Equalization -> smile face. (compensation for human hearing). Mix into the ear. The "smile" changes according to sound. Check waveforms with predictable middle frequencies like the kick or the bass.

Compression -> reduction of dynamics. Flattening of sound differences. Reduction of ear work and protection of ears.
In general it sounds bad when loud because there must be a shield of "warm frequencies" that protect the ears from isolated high frequency content.

The simple case:

take a guitar and send it to a distortion pedal. Turn on the distortion. Can you hear this loud? The answer is yes. Understand why.

Learn to work at low levels and only check sound loud for brief periods.

[Liquid EDGE]

A book called “the art of mixing” is great. Especially the visualisations of a mix it has.

[fidox]

Equalization -> smile face.

Really useful tip and recommendation.
Sound changed dramatically.

[dante]

I like John Paul Braddick's analogy best - mastering in the cube :

https://mastering.ninja/articles/thecube

[fidox]

I like John Paul Braddick's analogy best - mastering in the cube :

https://mastering.ninja/articles/thecube

Thanks Dante !

[fidox]

Equalization -> smile face

Something like this ?

I have played little arround with eq yesterday like you suggested and I really don't know , why I'm not familiar with that technique, cause it sounds way better and I understand now what is the point here.

[fra77x2]

It is called equal-loudness contour or Fletcher–Munson curves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

Because human hearing is tuned to the middle frequencies where human voice has the most energy, but this changes with loudness. If we amplify the signal we will hear mostly the mids so a sound sounds weak without enough bass and high frequencies, so we boost the lows and the highs or we attenuate the mids. Of course this interacts with the functionality of the sound and other psychoacoustic phenomena. For an example we can place a sound to the "back" by rolling off some of the highs. (because high frequency content is attenuated with distance) and vice versa. We can place a sound in the listeners face by equalizing it to have the most presence comparing to the other sounds in play. So by equalising we position our sounds to the front or to the back and we also compensate for loudness. And we also control the size of the sound. Now because some sounds should not have too much bass energy so to not interact or mudden our mix low frequencies - a quite common case- only boosting the highs could be enough.

[fidox]

It is called equal-loudness contour or Fletcher–Munson curves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

Because human hearing is tuned to the middle frequencies where human voice has the most energy, but this changes with loudness. If we amplify the signal we will hear mostly the mids so a sound sounds weak without enough bass and high frequencies, so we boost the lows and the highs or we attenuate the mids. Of course this interacts with the functionality of the sound and other psychoacoustic phenomena. For an example we can place a sound to the "back" by rolling off some of the highs. (because high frequency content is attenuated with distance) and vice versa. We can place a sound in the listeners face by equalizing it to have the most presence comparing to the other sounds in play. So by equalising we position our sounds to the front or to the back and we also compensate for loudness. And we also control the size of the sound. Now because some sounds should not have too much bass energy so to not interact or mudden our mix low frequencies - a quite common case- only boosting the highs could be enough.

Thanks !